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Median 401K Balances


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https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money/average-401k-balance-by-age

Fidelity estimates you should save from all sources:

1x your salary by age 30

3x by 40

6x by 50

8x by 60

10x by 67

But according to Vanguard median 401k savings (not all sources) is only:

25-34: $11,357

35-44: $28,318

45-54: $48,301

55-64: $71,168

65+:     $70,620

Get saving and investing, people. The stock market is a tremendous engine for wealth creation. Do not miss out.

Edited by Wrestleknownothing

Drowning in data, but thirsting for knowledge

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3 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money/average-401k-balance-by-age

Fidelity estimates you should save from all sources:

1x your salary by age 30

3x by 40

6x by 50

8x by 60

10x by 67

But according to Vanguard median 401k savings (not all sources) is only:

25-34: $11,357

35-44: $28,318

45-54: $48,301

55-64: $71,168

65+:     $70,620

Get saving and investing, people. The stock market is a tremendous engine for wealth creation. Do not miss out.

So is property

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23 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money/average-401k-balance-by-age

Fidelity estimates you should save from all sources:

1x your salary by age 30

3x by 40

6x by 50

8x by 60

10x by 67

But according to Vanguard median 401k savings (not all sources) is only:

25-34: $11,357

35-44: $28,318

45-54: $48,301

55-64: $71,168

65+:     $70,620

Get saving and investing, people. The stock market is a tremendous engine for wealth creation. Do not miss out.

Care to give me some insights into what I should be invested in??  🙂

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35 minutes ago, Bigbrog said:

Care to give me some insights into what I should be invested in??  🙂

If you haven’t already find yourself a good financial advisor that will diversify your portfolio and find the right risk factor based on your age and needs.  It’s well worth the money IMO. 

Edited by JimmyBT
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40 minutes ago, Bigbrog said:

Care to give me some insights into what I should be invested in??  🙂

 

6 minutes ago, JimmyBT said:

If you haven’t already find yourself a good financial advisor that will diversify your portfolio and find the right risk factor based on your age and needs.  It’s well worth the money IMO. 

Jimmy makes an excellent point. It is absolutely worth the money to have a good financial advisor.

As for me, I am comfortable with equity market risk and long term investment horizons. Therefore, I am heavily invested in the stock market. I am not a stock picker (mostly) so I use low cost index funds for my stock and bond exposure. 

I preached to my children that if you do this from a very early age with a very long investment horizon you will certainly be happy with the results. For example, if you start at 22 years old saving $100 per month, just $1,200 per year, and invest it in the S&P500 with dividends reinvested, assuming the future return equals the historic return (they won't), then in 40 years you will have deposited $48,000, but it will be worth ~$1,000,000. Why wouldn't you do this trade?

Given that I know nothing about your personal circumstances, I would not tell you how to invest. But I will definitely tell you that you need to save, live below your means, and find that good financial advisor.

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4 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

 

Jimmy makes an excellent point. It is absolutely worth the money to have a good financial advisor.

As for me, I am comfortable with equity market risk and long term investment horizons. Therefore, I am heavily invested in the stock market. I am not a stock picker (mostly) so I use low cost index funds for my stock and bond exposure. 

I preached to my children that if you do this from a very early age with a very long investment horizon you will certainly be happy with the results. For example, if you start at 22 years old saving $100 per month, just $1,200 per year, and invest it in the S&P500 with dividends reinvested, assuming the future return equals the historic return (they won't), then in 40 years you will have deposited $48,000, but it will be worth ~$1,000,000. Why wouldn't you do this trade?

Given that I know nothing about your personal circumstances, I would not tell you how to invest. But I will definitely tell you that you need to save, live below your means, and find that good financial advisor.

I did the same drill with my kids. I pounded them (pun intended) with the benefits of compound interest and how it can turn a little into a lot.  

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I was joking with you WNK.

I max out my 401k every year and have a pension so personally haven't dabbled in the stock market myself or with a financial advisor.  I have invested in land to help augment my retirement and if all goes well and the economy continues to improve I should be able to retire when I am 60 and have the same take home pay I have now.

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2 minutes ago, Bigbrog said:

I was joking with you WNK.

I max out my 401k every year and have a pension so personally haven't dabbled in the stock market myself or with a financial advisor.  I have invested in land to help augment my retirement and if all goes well and the economy continues to improve I should be able to retire when I am 60 and have the same take home pay I have now.

WKN don't joke about money.

But great to hear.

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I could tell you what stocks I like, but you'd miss out when I no longer favored them and be angry when I missed them.

AT&T, Verizon, and Western Union were good buys recently at lower prices.  The share price has recovered nicely, and the dividends are very good.  I will not hold those three beyond 2024.  SOFI is a rapidly growing bank that recently became profitable.  I am bullish on SOFI through 2026.  The stock price is being manipulated, so it will cause a new person to freak out, like the recent 20% gain and sell-off with earnings.  For the longer-term holder, I like buying SOFI for under $8 and holding through 2026-2027 for $20.  I've been tracking COTY since 2020, listening to the quarterly earning calls, etc.  The company made many mistakes, changed leadership, and has returned to its profitable ways.  This goes from $12 to $15 and returns dividends in 2025 in my analysis.  SOFI and COTY are underpriced, though I'm not buying more COTY unless it drops to $ 10.50.  I like high insider buys on profitable companies on the low end of their 52-week price range as prospective companies to perform due diligence on for my buys.  I also look into companies like Roblox because my kids play the game, but it's a no currently as they do not seem to have a path to profit.

SPX and NDX index funds remain safer hands-off investments with great returns since 2020.  See below for reference and note that the 'current' rows compare the beg of 2020 to a price check in the past week.  I think S&P will be down in the first half of 2024 and be better in 2025... especially if we get a pro capital Trump as president.

image.png

As for me, I'm a maniac that swing trades and holds individual stocks... putting in larger amounts across a small number of companies.  A recent stupid decision was thinking there was a runway for DISH to return on a mid-term holding investment, and instead, it merged with Echostar and keeps losing value.  Frick.

edit: redid image

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Where I work, we have a company 401K where you can invest in various generic funds, retirement funds which are more or less conservative the close you get to the retirement date.   For instance, Retirement 2025 is more conservative than Retirement 2030 and so on.    There are S&P funds, Russell 500 funds, small companies, large companies, international funds.   We even have a stable fund which is like a savings account with about 2% interest per year.   We can move funds around but have to pay a penalty (1.5%) if we do more than one move in a 15 calendar day time span. 

It has done well for me.   I am above the average of the original post thankfully.   

mspart

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Don't waste time on buying individual stocks.  All you need is a low cost diversified total market index fund from a company like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab.  Beats the stock pickers every time.

VTSAX and chill.

 

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What if you had a 401k from like 30 years ago, that you were into maybe a year and a half, and you hadn’t thought about it at all until you came across a wrestling board discussing 401k’s. Could that be worth much (if it even exists)?  
 

No reason….just something that popped in my head. 

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2 hours ago, MNRodent said:

Don't waste time on buying individual stocks.  All you need is a low cost diversified total market index fund from a company like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab.  Beats the stock pickers every time.

VTSAX and chill.

Given ~90% of Fund Managers lose to the market, an index fund is the best advice.  But FYI SPY has beaten VTSAX, and NDX has crushed SPY well before 2020.  2024 is trending for another NDX win.  Stock pickers can beat indexes and carving off 10% or so is fun/safe. 

I've picked individual stocks and beat the market in 14 of 20 years.  Originally the investment was 10% individual to 90% retirement index...this grew to 60% individual to 40% index... to 100% SPY... to 100% individual.  I'll go back to heavy index soon enough.

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2 hours ago, WrestlingRasta said:

What if you had a 401k from like 30 years ago, that you were into maybe a year and a half, and you hadn’t thought about it at all until you came across a wrestling board discussing 401k’s. Could that be worth much (if it even exists)? 

No reason….just something that popped in my head. 

Yes.

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17 hours ago, WrestlingRasta said:

What if you had a 401k from like 30 years ago, that you were into maybe a year and a half, and you hadn’t thought about it at all until you came across a wrestling board discussing 401k’s. Could that be worth much (if it even exists)?  
 

No reason….just something that popped in my head. 

It depends on what you are invested in within the 401k.  A broadly diversified all stock portfolio or fund should have doubled about 4 times in 30 years (using Rule of 72 and assuming 10% average annual return on equities) so 10K would be around 80K.  A more balance 60/40 stock/bond portfolio would have doubled about 3 times in 30 years (using Rule of 72 and assuming 7% average annual return), so 10K would be around 40K. 

 

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Ha, thanks Know Nothing.    I plan on 120 years but genetics says different!!!   My Great Grandpa lived to 42, grandpa to 54, my dad to 88 so the trajectory is there.   However my great great grandpa lived to 63, dying just 2 years before my great grandpa.    I just need to outlive my kids and grandkids and I'll be happy.  

My 401K has gained 6 times what it was in 2008.   That's 15 years, not too bad.   I just need that to have been 12 times and I would be sitting pretty.  I'm thinking I could have maybe but I lost track for a number of years so I didn't get the gains I could have had.   Oh well, I am where I am.   Was looking to retire but not enough in the kitty yet.   If I retire now and die in a month, there's enough.  

mspart

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On 2/2/2024 at 3:01 PM, mspart said:

I want the one that doubles 30 times.   Got any recommendations?

mspart

 

23 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Live longer

How much longer?

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